What A Blood Glucose Test Tells.

A blood sugar test is done for the diagnosis of diabetes. This is because diabetes mellitus is diagnosed on the basis of high blood sugar levels. Three tests, the blood glucose test, done fasting and 2 hours after breakfast are used for diagnosis.

Also read: All you wanted to know about diabetes

How is the test done?

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• The fasting blood glucose: For this one, the patient is asked to fast for a night (8 hours minimum), then the glucose level is checked.
• Post prandial blood glucose: This one is done two hours after having a meal. This one is basically challenging the ability of the body to regulate blood sugar level after a meal.
• Random blood sugar test is, as the name suggests, done randomly at any hour.
• Glucose challenge test: For this one, the patient is given 75gms of glucose orally for detecting borderline diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in the body.
• These tests are also need for checking control over diabetes.

What are the normal values?

• Fasting plasma glucose level is normal when lower than 110mg/dl.
• For PP plasma glucose levels, a value lower than 140mg/dl is considered to be normal.

What are the abnormal values?

• When fasting plasma glucose level goes beyond 126mg/dl, it indicated diabetes mellitus.
• When the level of glucose lies between 110-125 mg/dl, the condition is termed as impaired fasting glucose.
• Also, a random plasma glucose level indicates diabetes mellitus when it goes beyond 200mg/dl.
• When the level is anywhere between 140-199 mg/dl, the condition is termed as impaired glucose tolerance. Also, when blood sugar level exceeds 200mg/dl, it is indicative of the presence of diabetes.

What is the role of insulin?

Insulin does play a role here. When we eat, the body breaks food down into glucose (sugar) which it uses in the form of energy. What insulin does here is that it helps the cells to use this glucose in the form of energy and also allows it to store the same in the liver for using later. So insulin basically regulates blood glucose levels.

Diabetics, however, do not produce the required amount of insulin. As a result, the blood sugar level goes up leading to increased glucose levels in the bloody, known as hyperglycemia.